The Freshman Academy is located outside the cafeteria and next to the JROTC building. There are no upperclassmen classes in the Freshman Academy. “There is no reason for upperclassmen to be out here. They have no classes here. They don’t have to go through here to get to any classes,” Assistant Principal and Freshman Academy administrator Reginald Thomas said. Photo by Aneesa Conine-Nakano.
By ANEESA CONINE-NAKANO – Digital Managing Edit
According to Clarke Central High School administration, the Freshman Academy, though isolated from most students, has many benefits.
For the second consecutive school year, freshmen attend core classes in the Freshman Academy, located outside the cafeteria and Administrative Wing. Assistant Principal and Freshman Academy Administrator Reginald Thomas believes there are many benefits to the isolation.
“(The Freshman Academy) allows them to be able to transition more smoothly from middle school to high school,” Thomas said. “They still have a lot of middle school-ish, childish kind of playing, acting behavior. And there are a lot of them that are innocent and naïve to things that go on with the older students.”
According to Thomas, another positive effect of the Freshman Academy is the ability to enforce regulations due to the proximity.
“We know them personally and they know us personally so it’s not like ‘Who is this man telling me to do this or that?’ They know us because they see us all the time,” Thomas said. “They know we are going to be consistent and they know that we are going to treat them all the same.”
Although Thomas thinks there are many advantages to the Freshman Academy, he identifies the long walks as a complaint among the freshmen. However, he believes the walking is less of a problem this year because of the open paths to the trailer.
“I used to hate it myself because (last year) there was two fences on either side and it was literally like walking through a maze,” Thomas said. “At least now they can come out this other end and it’s a lot quicker and a lot easier to get back and forth. They still have to do a lot of walking but I think this year everyone is doing a lot of walking so it is not as big of an issue.”
Freshman Yoanna Shurdha agrees with Thomas’ sentiments about the long journey between classes for freshmen.
“I have a class in the West Wing, a class in the old building. I have classes completely on the other side (of the school) so it takes me a while to get from the Freshman Academy to the West Wing or all the way to the old building or all the way to the orchestra room,” Shurdha said.
Despite some downsides, Thomas ultimately believes that the Freshman Academy helps administrators and teachers assist students adapting to high school.
“We can learn all of our kids. We can see their tendencies. We can learn what supports they need. We can see them,” Thomas said. “They aren’t mixed in so we can look at them as individuals and kinda see what’s going on opposed to trying to pick them out of the whole student body.”
More from Aneesa Conine-Nakano
